I had high hopes for this book, and the only thing I was slightly disappointed by was the fact she hardly spoke about Pitch Perfect at all! Which is a surprise because it’s arguably the film she’s most well known for… But otherwise, this book is just fantastic. Anna Kendrick takes you right into her mind and sometimes you wonder whether you really should be in there!! She is incredibly honest, sometimes cringely so! But it is so, so funny. 

What’s most enlightening about this book is that you get to see how very normal Kendrick is (calling her Anna feels a bit to presumptuous, though I definitely think we could be besties). She describes the very normal life she was still living at the same time as filming Up In the Air. Well, normal as in she shared a flat with some friends and slept in a twin Ikea bed. She’s also very honest about her struggles, her loneliness and her anxiety, but she does it in the self-deprecating, humorous way which she approaches everything! Hearing about her childhood doing shows on Broadway, with a supportive family and a level head, you can see she was a child star who stayed on the rails. Her move to LA to pursue acting as an adult is eye-opening, unglamorous and full of brilliant anecdotes (again, some of which you wonder should be in print form! Maybe I’m just very sensitive…)

If you love Anna Kendrick, you will love this book. If you hate her, you would probably hate it because it’s basically her in book form. If you are indifferent, I’m sure you could grow to love her! I read it in about three days because I enjoyed it so much. 

I had read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by the same author, and another one I can’t remember the name of, and really enjoyed them. I enjoyed this book too, but didn’t find it as funny as the other ones. It has its moments and I think I even laughed out loud a couple of times at the beginning. However, the plot then gets very involved in the housing market collapse and the banking crisis and there were often moments I didn’t really understand what was going on… A similar feeling to when I watched The Big Short. 

The plot revolves around a family and each member (apart from the dad…) has their own chapters where they tell their side of the story. Each character has their quirks (they are generally a very quirky family, they used to be in a commune) and none of them are hugely likeable, but they are believable. One character that the book portrays really well is Ollie-Anna, who has Down’s Syndrome. I haven’t before read a book where a main character has Down’s and it’s really interesting to see her through the other characters’ eyes. Unfortunately she doesn’t get her own chapters, I think it would be great to hear things from her point of view.

I would recommend this book as a light, easy read. Occasionally it mentions mathematical and financial terms that went over my head, but I tended to just brush past those! If you wanted to look things up, you might even learn something new!

So I’ve realised that I’ve missed out a review, whoops! Don’t want you guys thinking I’ve read one less book than I’m meant to!

A while ago, I read The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan. If you don’t know about Keegan, she is best known for an essay she wrote called “The Opposite of Loneliness”. The essay went viral after Keegan was killed in a car crash just five days after she graduated from Yale University, aged 22. That essay and a few other pieces she wrote, both non-fiction and fiction, were compiled into a book. 

I don’t remember much of what I thought about the book, other than I didn’t think it lived up to the hype. I know some reading this will disagree with me, but I wasn’t hugely impressed by the first essay. I thought the fiction was much stronger and I did enjoy some of the short stories. However, the book didn’t leave a great impression of me so I think I’d only recommend it if you’re curious about the hype.

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

It was a bit silly starting this tome of a book so late in the challenge! But, 580 pages later, I’m so glad I did. Whilst the theme of botany in nineteenth century America isn’t something I’d normally choose to read, Gilbert’s writing is just so exquisite and easy to read that I became enthralled with the protagonist, Alma’s, journey and research. 

The book covers almost of all Alma’s life, her travels, her heartbreak, her family… This is the reason why I like big books (and I cannot lie). I became completely absorbed in Alma’s life, as one of the reviews says in the cover, I felt like I had lived another life. 

I don’t want to talk too much about the plot as I think a lot of the book’s charm comes from the many twists and turns the plot takes, with secrets revealed and hidden. Likewise, there are many quotes I could pick out but to give you an idea of the poetic tone of the book, I thought I’d leave you with just the final lines:

“She clutched the great tree as if it were a horse. She pressed her cheek against its silent, living flank.

She said, “You and I are very far from home, aren’t we?”

In the dark gardens, in the middle of the quiet city night, the tree did not reply.

But it did hold her up just a little while longer.”

*sigh*

I would definitely recommend it to any Elizabeth Gilbert fans and really to anyone else who enjoys long, sprawling books.